Anyone else been made fun of because of their name/surname?

[Iamsocold888]

It’s a long, European surname. Once a man actually laughed down the phone at it when I had to give my name and address.

Working at a school, a lady asked me, “Really?! So do the kids call you miss _?!”
Well yeah, that is my name so..

Or in other jobs/school I’ve had people read out lists of full names but only read my first name.

Always remember a girl behind me in the lunch queue at school sniggering when my surname came up on the card machine.

Even in some jobs people have said, “Yeah, I’m just gonna call you by your first name.”

It used to get me down when I was younger but I realise it’s their problem. I have no issue with people asking how to pronounce it or commenting on how it’s different.

Anyone else had this? Just find people so rude sometimes.

As a kid though I have had adults double check I've spelt my name right 😆

As a young child my name was often questioned why have you for this name

People often comment it’s a lovely name which is nice

It’s still often changed to the anglicised version which doesn’t really bother me

My friend has a Swedish DH who is well known in his field of work, so much so that she was excited to take his surname when they married. She's a teacher. I won't say what the name is, but she is known as Mrs Sodastream amongst her 8 year old pupils...

No. Mine is the name of a famous place in Ireland so mostly well received.
The bloody cheek of them, ask directly what the problem is? They need to grow up and be more kid, though there is one EE teacher whose name sounds similar to wank-me the older DC have a giggle.

Yes, my whole life.

I have a Cypriot surname and it's very long. It was actually the reason I didn't give my DD my name.

My maiden name is unusual in the UK and has direct links with Nazi Germany. So that was fun at school.

The main problem we always have now is people refusing to believe that it actually is pronounced/spelt like that and changing it even if we've entered it directly on forms etc. It's also fallen foul of Internet filters on occasion.

Yep, maiden name is an Irish surname. Not a long name but apparently unpronounceable and unspellable outside of Merseyside. A figure of fun at school.

Yeah, first and last name at school. Both English. Now I have a Chinese surname and no one pronounces it properly but I always would let them know. I think you just have to own your name, don't laught along, don't let people just pronounce it however they want. It's part of your identity. They're just being ignorant and it's reflects on them not you. Xx

NC for this for obvious reasons.
My first name is Esther. Esther Rantzen was pretty famous when I was school age so I got "Esther Rantzen, hur hur hur!" shouted at me a lot. Several people asked me why I wasn't laughing too. Er, because it's not funny?? It was usually followed up by "Four eyes!" because some people really have no imagination.
My married name is Card. I prefer it to my original surname and I personally haven't had much in the way of comments, but poor ds1 has. All the usual, birthday card, christmas card, master card etc. One of his classmates got in trouble for drawing on ds1's shirt. When challenged he replied "But I'm just drawing on card!"
Funny? Not.
I've only had one person make the reference of "master card" and they also asked why I wasn't laughing. My explanation that it was one of the least original jokes in the world and that laughing at someone's name isn't a nice thing to do was at least heeded.
It's never occurred to me to make fun of someone's name, or point out if it means something odd. Why? It's not as if they had any choice in the matter.

@Blueeyedgirl21

What is a ‘long European surname’ I’m confused it could literally be anything ?

For example my ICT teacher in high school was called Mrs Jankowski (Yankoska - she has a Polish husband). Everyone just called her 'Mrs Yan'. Even though it wouldn't have been much effort to use and say her name.

My maiden name is fairly long, Irish, with lots of consonants. First name is technically Irish, but people in the UK call it "American". It wasn't commented on growing up in Canada, but people here have often told me it's weird and hard to pronounce (it's pronounced phonetically...).

My married name is a misspelled object. Frequent jokes made.

I have an unusual name and got teased at school I hated it! My maiden name was also long an european but it doesn't bother me as much. Fast forward to me having children and they have nice but normal names so that they could get through school!

Thankfully most silliness around names have changed for the next generation.
Any Kelly had to be pristine and was still nicknamed smelly Kelly. God love anyone with a posh name or old grandfather name.
Jeering is really hurtful no matter how many times you repeated "sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will never hurt me"
I'm glad people acknowledge name calling is really hurtful.

I knew a PA who announced she couldn’t pronounce my surname and refused to try. She also would get into a complete tizzy about foreign names and her boss used to get messages saying “that Thai gentleman on File AAB” called. There were several Thai gentlemen that might have called

I could see her point about being scared to get it wrong - we feel how we feel - but I did think it rather unprofessional and from time to time I wonder how the rest of her career as executive assistant in an international firm went.

My married name is one that people find funny. Most responses are along the "is that real?" Line. (Its an old English name)

Mixed with DHs professional title its a 70s Band. Which lead to a radio segment about once!

@SelfHelpPlease

I think all names get mocked! I have a very English name (think Elizabeth but not) and surname and I always get mocked. I don't think anyone can win on this one.

Don't be ridiculous, all names do not get mocked.

Having read this, I wonder how many people change their surname due to teasing/abuse and whether some surnames are now extinct?

I have an unusual first name and surname - both of which are easy to spell and pronounce but equally easy to mispronounce/misspell as there are other unusual names that are slightly more familiar, and people often latch onto those first as it’s a known way of making sense of things that aren’t automatically recognised.

Add into the mix that I’m deaf and people can think I’m mispronouncing my own name and that my first name really is the slightly better-known name. Or, as last week, when I went to click and collect, I didn’t hear the member of staff approaching me to ask if I wanted to collect something - ambient noise/behind mask etc. It was only when we both ended up at the desk and started to engage and I asked for my product, she started to remonstrate that she'd already asked me that question (which I could hear because it was in a quieter corner). I explained about being deaf and added to her obvious annoyance at being apparently ignored she went into a total flat spin at dealing with a deaf person. The mental shutters came crashing down. I spelt out my surname, she struggled to understand, I wrote it down for her, but she still couldn’t quite process it somehow and couldn’t find my order. (Had to give her the order no in the end - normally at that store surname and postcode is enough.)

Happens a lot to us deaf people. Being deaf is quite common. Having unusual names is also common. But oh no, when you have a combination of the two you’re some scary witch terrifying shop assistants right out of their wits. It gets tedious.

Yeah, I have a very unusual first name and short european surname that is similar in spelling, though different to, a reasonably common British surname. I’ve been asked if that’s really how I spell it, was I sure 😕 , I sometimes get eye rolls and smirks along with, where’s that from? I usually reply that I’m from London and that’s sometimes followed with but where are you really from? Where’s the name from? This last happened when I joined a local walking group a couple of months ago (trying to exercise within covid restrictions) and had the above conversation. I only went once.

It takes a bit of mental judo to handle - but can be worth it.

My surname is odd - even for an Italian (buried on my FB is a clip I made from Inspector Montalbano where a character has it). However, it never fails to elicit the question "is that Italian ?" or similar which is an amazing in if you know how to leverage small talk. DS is now finding the same. It's hard to explain the warm feeling you get in an interview when you've just had a couple of minutes chat with someone where you can feel confident, get a chance to show some language skills and (in my case|) explain how Mum met Dad. Or vice versa.

Googling reveals that there are maybe 6 people in the world with my firstname-surname mix |(weirdly many more with DWs firstname and my surname ) . Which is also quite handy these days.

I used to get teased for having a ‘posh’ name. God knows why as it’s a perfectly normal English name although still not particularly common. I was the only one in my year and hated it. It didn’t help that I didn’t have a local accent.
Aged 50 something I still get teased for being posh, ironic as I come from a fairly poor background. It’s still considered acceptable to take the piss out of someone because they are considered to have a posh voice.

Don't be ridiculous, all names do not get mocked.

Surely it depends?

My friend is Chloe & she hates that she was Chloe no 3 in class/school

Mixed with DHs professional title its a 70s Band. Which lead to a radio segment about once!

It's got to be either Captain Beefheart or Lieutenant Pigeon

My friend is Chloe & she hates that she was Chloe no 3 in class/school

Not really the same thing, but it always seems to lose impact in pub quizzes, where you get two or more teams with the same/very similar 'hilarious' and 'unique' name. I realise that Chloe's parents weren't trying to be witty when they chose her name, but it still detracts from your own individuality when several others are known by the same name - kind of defeats the point of having names in the first place.

My married name is a very unusual name and can be misheard and mis spelt quite a lot. It's a name you say and then immediately have to also spell out loud to be clear. We have had funny misspellings on mail in the past. My dh was at school when the name was linked to a very famous TV character at the time so people would comment then. Even nowadays when we give our name occasionally somebody of a certain age will say 'Oh, as in...? '

My siblings and I were adopted by my stepfather when I was in primary school. I went from a fairly normal name to one that got the piss ripped out of for years. Changed it when I got married to something more normal. Now I'm divorced, I've changed my name to something brand new that I love.